York’s leading pet store is planning to be “nuggets only” by the end of the year, following the success of a ‘Muesli Amnesty’ in conjunction with Burgess Pet Care, which urged rabbit owners to swap unhealthy muesli for nuggets.

James Nixon, the owner of Pets Pantry in Huntington, says about 80 per cent of his customers are now nugget buyers after being educated about the benefits of nuggets during the campaign, which ran in September and October. Supported by Burgess Pet Care the Muesli Amnesty was highlighted across local radio and social media, with a Facebook video having close to 2000 views.

Pets Pantry customers were able to trade in their rabbit muesli for a 1kg bag of Burgess Excel Nuggets, a £1-off voucher against their next purchase and a handy guide to changing their rabbit’s diet and over the course of the event dozens of owners exchanged their muesli type of diets for Excel nuggets

Commercial rabbit mueslis, have been shown to increase the risk of serious illness in rabbits, with the 2013 PDSA Animal Wellbeing report suggesting they are at the root of severe dental and digestive problems.

“The October campaign provided a fantastic platform to educate more customers about the benefits of nuggets,” says James. “We have always championed top quality foods for rabbits, but to have the backing of Burgess behind us made a big difference. It’s given us the confidence to go forward and continue to educate more customers about best practice when it comes to rabbits.”

As one of the first pet food manufacturers to create a nugget food for rabbits – combining all essential nutrients into one pelleted food – Burgess is keen for all rabbit owners to ditch muesli in favour of nutritionally rich nuggets, fed alongside high quality feeding hay to aid digestion and dental health.